For Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner, the Thursday night football game at a local gym has been an unbroken ritual for twenty-five years. Along the way players have come and gone, but a hard core remains, with each match a little older, a little slower, but as fiercely competitive as a gang of teenagers. Until a former player is found murdered in a manner that shocks even a hardened veteran like Skinner, and suddenly the Thursday Legends have more to worry about than aching backs and dodgy knees. Former Head of Special Branch Alec Smith made plenty of enemies during a long career – and there would appear to be no shortage of suspects. But as Skinner’s investigation gathers pace, everything keeps pointing to the Legends themselves. Is someone targeting this disparate group of colleagues and friends in some bizarre scheme of retribution? Or is the murderer one of them? Either way, the hunt for the killer is going to come uncomfortably close to home...